DickSonstreetDFW

I love Popeye's spicy strips, with red beans & rice. Popeye's puts KFC to shame. Church's and Popeyes have, for the large part of their existence, primarily targeted areas with larger African American communities. NWA hasn't really ever had a large number of blacks and still doesn't.

I think Church's and Popeye's are new to the NWA market. I had Raisin' Canes once. Good stuff.

That sucks. I hate powerlines. But I love electricity. There could not be a worse place for them to run these high lines through Fayetteville unless they chose to run them directly across the top of Mt. Sequoyah. I wonder if there is any way the power company could camouflage the lines, like painting them green, or something.

I know they are a big deal for retail in NWA. My comment is about the developer over-hyping his own product. Basically, he's lying. But thats a close relative to "selling".

Jeez, what drama. 1) Its a MALL! If the opening of a MALL is the biggest day in NWA history.......nevermind. 2) How does one quantify the "top 10 outdoor shopping venues in America"? Shouldn't that followed by, "in my opinion"? Good lord, could he overstate this any more? Perhaps Mr. Schwyhart is the one who needs to get out of Benton County more.

No renderings posted as of yet, but for future reference, this is the company designing the Maple Hill Residence Hall: http://www.werarch.com/news.php

I can't find my source. I may have pulled it out of my a##, or maybe I was remembering a ranking related to job growth that put NWA in the top ten category last year. On the table provided, NWA ranked 24th in population percentage growth '02-'03, while ShV was 290th I think. Their pops were bascially the same at the time. I think its a safe bet that in 2005-06, NWA has a slight advantage in pop.

I guess some people do. Springdale rocks. It has Cracker Barrel. It must be better than Fayetteville. Quantifying your city's value, or position in the world based on which chain restaurants it has is a very very small town mindset. We done got us TWO TGIFridays! Whatchu think about that, Fort Smith?? It depends on how impressed you are by chains like TGIFridays. I drive by probably six a day and I haven't gone to a single one of them because I think TGIFridays, quite frankly, sucks. If EVERY SINGLE franchise restaurant in Fayetteville were to burn down tomorrow and be replaced by local eateries, I would not think it a tragedy or a decrease in the value of Fayetteville. Quite the contrary. The franchising of America means that every place is the same. Your opinion on that being a good thing or bad thing depends on your perspective. NWA had a couple of Cheeburger Cheeburgers a few years ago but they went bye bye. Fatburger is good. Mostly a west coast thing. Surprised to see them in Louisiana. I've not even seen them in Texas.

I said it. They were basically the same last time I looked at estimates. I'm assuming a higher growth rate in NWA since it was in the top ten nationally percentage wise, therefore it makes sense that NWA has surpassed Shreveport in the past year or so.

There's been one in the NWA mall for at least 6-7 years. I bought, by request, several gifts for neices and nephews there. Its kind of a toddlers up to 7 yr olds version of Gap. Mid-priced, "cool" clothes for kids.

Definitely and advantage Bentonville has is that they are growing so quickly and didn't start with a rather large town in which to enact planning guidelines ex post facto. A lot of Fayetteville's issues are remedying past mistakes.

Again, the powerlines are a separate issue. I don't think they are a part of any master plan, but rather will get through due to a loophole allowing utilities to upgrade. I don't think Fayetteville could veto it if they wanted to.

Here's another woe. Fayetteville, Springdale, Rogers MSA is larger than Shreveport now. Sorry, had to do it.

You make some very good points about Bentonville and their step up in better community planning. I wouldn't go as far as to say that it is "better" than Fayetteville's because they seem to have similar visions for their cities. Fayetteville has been setting aside green space and nature areas for decades. Bentonville, as far as I know, is a newcomer to the masterplanning concept. As far as the powerlines, I am not sure if ANY city could control a utility's plan for upgrading services, short of funding the asthetic improvements which would soften the impact. Fayetteville may simply not be able to afford to share the costs with the power company. I don't think any planning could have prevented this from happening.

I don't need a lesson in franchsing as its something I've worked in early in my career. I know how it works. I'm not strictly anti-chain as much as I seriously don't give a rat's patootie if NWA gets another TGIFridays, or any similar restaurants. The prospect doesn't interest me. I'm more neutral than opposed. I find them bland contrivances and sit-down versions of fast food with generally poor service and cartoon-like settings. I don't get excited about them because I really don't believe they bring much to the city other than tax revenues. They contribute very little to the community fabric and by defnition are generic, standard copies which can be found in just about any small town in America. You believe they enhance quality of life for some reason. I don't think that they do. There are certain chains that I find to be enjoyable places which truly offer quality and atmosphere, great food, above and beyond chains like Applebee's and TGIFridays. PF Changs, Texas de Brazil, etc I don't mind. I disagree that NWA would be in bad shape without chains, but that is a subjective notion (opinion) with which I can't argue.